hi 6:30 so this meeting will be called to order um this is a regular meeting of the Oakland Board of Education adequate notice of this meeting has been provided uh on a roll call please uh Mrs Fel here Mr STS here Mrs Rotondo here Mr M Mr tab here Mrs marman here Mr schaer here Mrs buchka we have Quorum here all right please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance all right um section two there is no executive session at this time so we're moving on to section three for the presentation so I asked Dr McDow um if he could share this looking ahead to next year presentation um it was previously emailed out um but just wanted to go through some of the things here so I'm G to step aside and let Dr McDow take so good evening everyone thank you uh for being in attendance and so we have just a few slides we wanted to make sure that we were giving our community a preview um of what they should expect um moving into September and so our our theme um thank goodness is that we are shifting out of language actions and activities connected with pandemic recovery we believe that that period of time is over and we're shifting to uh how do you how do we support rigorous learning environments and so that'll be the theme of our looking ahead uh and so as always we are driven by our mission um which is really focused on um ensuring that our students uh are confident uh and they encouraged and inspired and so our district leadership actions are really focused on making sure that we're are analyzing systems and removing barriers we're moving away from compliance uh with an emphasis on instructional Improvement uh we're shifting away from uh mandated curricula to what is uh best practice dictate and then ultimately we commit uh to sustaining strong leadership uh as well as commit to uh sustaining and retaining our dedicated faculty and staff and so our priority for this upcoming year is supporting rigorous learning environments which includes high quality engaging and differentiated instruction and so uh the leadership team as well as the support staff will be working uh to make minor revisions to our uh differentiated instruction and our small group instruction and Intervention Program uh adjust and update our multi-tiered system of support making sure that all of our students get what they need support our our expansion of our professional learning communities and so we'll be moving into year three with the uh learning schedule here in Oakland um and then subtle tweaks will be made by the leadership team based on the data uh so for example this year uh the leaders ship uh reviewed the data and found that by adding a few additional minutes to our fifth grade students we wanted to help propel them ahead so that they were ready willing and able uh to be successful upon Middle School uh so we'll continue with that um tradition uh increas the effectiveness of uh professional development addressing the curriculum shifts and so at the elementary levels there are uh curriculum uh updates in ela and math and so uh Collingwood and Oakland um teachers will be working on a summer project uh not only auditing um our K through five literacy curriculum but they will also be mapping uh the updates and the standards uh in in literacy uh we're also looking to just reinforce our academics and then making sure that the connections between school culture and mental health um are there as well as building capacity for uh inclusive classrooms and so as always um our facility is a it's a precious one and we want to make sure that it is well maintained uh large in part to the efforts of our phenomenal buildings and grounds team um maintaining and and updating our facilities as as needed uh will be an ongoing uh Pursuit uh in addition to making sure that we recapture um all educational space in Oakland for Oakland uh students and so there will need to be uh discussions about programmatic expansion we know that specific uh there is a weit list for preschool and so um there will need to be discussions about what does that look like to make sure that Oakland families have access to high quality early childhood education uh including um looking at safety uh as always and making sure that there are supports in place to maintain a safe uh and structured learning environment um in addition to uh continuing to refine our Technology support um for the school and so we made some strategic moves and reorganized uh the technology team in order to be more timely in the response and uh to make sure that uh tickets were being answered uh faster uh customer service was being provided and that they were uh uh fewer delays uh in the delivery of services in addition to uh always seeking to pursue improvements in the way in which we communicate and the channels in which we use uh we will be uh seeking to to uh increase our presence uh on social media uh to provide public information to our community uh in subsequent months and so just to reiterate in terms of uh what's included in our current budget uh annual contractual salary increases uh for all faculty and staff which also includes health and and and benefits uh Employee Assistance programs extra Duty assignments and then uh staff and retention recruitment bonus uh in addition to uh round two or part two of the uh compensation Improvement package for our instructional assistance uh last year was part one uh and we wanted to continue and deliver on the promise to uh increase compensation for our classroom AIDS our instructional assistance uh and we will continue to do that with annual increases including paid time off curriculum support our reference a bit earlier um the summer curriculum um audit will be taking place with an emphasis on closing opportunity gaps um looking at uh how accessible our curriculum is paired with uh the roll out or the launch of a new curriculum platform to make it easier for both staff and families to access all of our curriculum materials and tools and so staff will have access this summer uh and then during uh back to school night we will um be launching a parent access so that they have access to all of the curriculum Is this different than the one we previewed in early fall last year it is that company um was purchased by a much larger uh company so now they're a subsidiary um and the level of service to districts of our size was lagging and so we needed to go with a different vendor um curriculum in terms of looking ahead there's been lots of spirited debate across the country about the science of reading about balanced literacy about reading instruction um and so we will be uh making the necessary uh standard revisions over the summer um we will also continue to use the K5 Universal screener uh which helps to identify lagging skills for students and so Oakland will be in year two of utilizing a universal screener and so they'll be refining uh based on what we learned this year um new will be uh a new tool for uh phic awareness uh and decoding uh we'll continue with foundations for Phonics spelling and vocabulary and then uh we will also be seeking to better integrate the uh curriculum crosswalks which includes uh Holocaust Amistad climate change uh Dei and informational literacy and so we also think that it's important um to share with our Oakland Community what's also taking place at at the secondary level and so uh there will be curriculum updates at Middle School language arts um specifically uh standards uh for grades six through eight uh and then we are uh seeking to shift our instructional model uh to the readers Writers Workshop which is the a similar model to what we experience uh currently in uh Oakland School um there'll be new resources for our multilingual Learners specifically um Bridge level programs as well as looking at how do we better support uh students with interruptions in formal education and then High School language arts excuse me we'll also uh see standards revisions and curriculum mapping that will also take place this summer uh in addition to the development of a transitional course uh for incoming or Rising ninth graders um who have historically been challenged in the area of reading and literacy in terms of math um we will be providing the standards updates in math we will continue with the utilization of our N2 math program um K through 12 we're in year three in elementary year two in middle school and year two in high school specifically for algebra uh Algebra 2 in Geometry um supplemental Math course uh will be used for tier 2 as well as tier three uh interventions and so these are students that um tier one or um a whole group instruction um is not sufficient uh in addition to a fact fluency uh tool um fracks and re and uh and reflex math and then new for this year at the high school will be an algebra geometry one uh course which is an integrated math course um historically for students who have struggled in math traditional algebra traditional geometry and Algebra 2 will still be offered as well as honors and in advanced placement courses but for students that need more time um to wrestle with the standards and the expectations for algebra and geometry um the standards will be spread out over a two-year period And so in lie of students uh uh who are behind uh being assessed in 9th grade they'll be assessed in grade 10 in stem uh we'll be maintaining much of our current level of support right now in K5 uh is Mystery Science and so for the for this upcoming school year uh will'll be uh reviewing programming uh we believe that a science program is is needed in order to continue growing with our students but we wanted to give our school uh leaders time and our teachers time to review all of the options that are out there so that we can make an informed decision and so the goal would be uh for a program launch for uh this time next year with a new science curriculum uh secondary science will continue to use edpuzzle which is an instructional video content management system um which also helps to provide on demand standards based uh lessons um and then the high school will also be using a very similar Tool World Language um Elementary um Spanish will uh continue to be offered um in grades uh K through 5 our middle school program will still uh emphasize Spanish culture and communication and then at the high school we will still offer uh French Spanish and German uh four years uh for all of our uh linguistic superstars on campus um we will be updating the curriculum in German 3 and German 4 um and then there will be a new uh curriculum adoption grades 9 through 12 in Spanish um in social studies we will uh continue to use Brain Pop um at the elementary level but we will also be seeking um to adopt a new social studies um uh curriculum platform or tools for the 2526 school year we wanted to give our Educators a year to be able to evaluate all of the resources that are out there and then make a recommendation to move forward um new for this year um at the secondary level is a new advanced placement course uh titled African-American studies uh that course is currently fully subscribed uh and thanks to our uh Humanities team and our Grants Department we secured a college board Grant to be able to uh pay for all of the materials including field trips uh for students in its first year uh and that course currently has 29 students signed up to take that course in terms of professional development professional development uh will always be uh an ongoing discussion based on what students need uh and what staff are requesting uh in terms of support um at the preschool level um we will continue to utilize creative curriculum um but we will also be adding uh handle with care which is for Behavioral support and then uh Al uh Pals which is a supplemental uh curriculum uh in terms of seal for the creative curriculum um resources at the elementary we will continue to provide professional Learning Community Support on an as needed basis um each grade level um is uh is in a different uh Place based on um their student needs and then the configuration of each of the teams and so professional learning communities are really uh uh dedicated time for the teachers uh to do their work um set the tone um spend time on the things that they need in order to support their students and so we'll continue to provide that support uh we'll continue to provide seal and behavioral support in addition to deescalation and crisis uh prevention training um Equity foundation training for uh new incoming staff as well as instructional assistance and uh School uh administrative assistance um is in the queue for this upcoming year using some of our grant funds to pay for some of those um in addition to uh we'll be looking at uh cohort three of our educational Leadership Academy and so each year um we bring in a dozen uh Collingwood and Oakland teachers interested in leadership opportunities that don't uh uh always demand that they leave the classroom and so uh this year one of Oakland's Preschool teachers was in that cohort and one of the things one of her passion projects that she was working on that we were that we are supporting is what does the prek to kindergarten transition look like and how can we ensure that it is a smooth one for all students so that we are working between preschool and uh elementary teachers in order to fill in gaps in terms of lagging skills and so uh other projects include uh training for uh instructional assistance um looking at um opportunities to uh increase student voice on campus and so each uh member in that cohort uh chose different projects and so we're extremely uh excited uh we will be launching a new uh cohort in the fall uh and it is generally on an application basis and so Educators they apply to participate we meet monthly um with a full day of professional development and collaboration um we do book studies we do uh case studies as well um we have uh targeted sessions that we also use and then we also used this as a think tank and so the feedback that came from the group of this year the cohort this year was integral in the development of a uh teacher uh retention grant that Collingswood was awarded uh in the in the sum of $125,000 meant to focus on removing administrating tasks that prevent teachers from emphasizing teaching and learning and so the feedback session that was used with this cohort was the direct content that led to the um acceptance and the and the award and so we look at these educational leaders as an opportunity uh some of the previous members are now uh program coordinators they do the mentoring and induction program they run summer programs one of the members is is now a principal um another other member is now a a program supervisor and so we use this as a way to invest in our our staff um title one uh Title One funding will be used to support Ela and math um uh for students in the classroom and uh title one will be uh used to provide additional training that is content specific and so at the middle in the high school level um similar uh supporting professional learning communities um multi intered system of support and so targeted academic interventions for students who struggle sheltered English uh uh language support for nonl classrooms and so it will be year two um that we will be working with general education teachers who have English language Learners in their classrooms with targeted uh professional development and skills to better engage uh students with limited English uh deescalation and Crisis Prevention training uh Equity found foundation training Equity Council support and so in colle woodan Oakland uh we have uh staff that have uh uh participated in additional training and want to serve as Leaders on each of their campuses uh and then their input will be used um both at the school level and at the district level to help influence professional development policy and practice um we will be uh participating in an elevating student voice project this summer uh you using some of our expiring um uh Co funds uh to launch us on that with the emphasis of Collingwood High School students working alongside advisors and Community leaders on an action project really focused on how to improve School culture in their building students and staff will be working hand in hand in order to identify the problem collect data make uh uh uh recommendations for how to move forward and then having those ideas moved forward uh on their campus um Title One funding at the secondary level will be used to support math instruction um as well as content uh specific uh academic support and so in terms of student support our special services team uh will continue to provide uh services to all uh students uh who qualify uh per their IEP and so uh maintenance of our high quality programs which includes self-contained resource pullout replacement supplemental um inclass support occupational therapy Physical Therapy um speech services counseling and behavioral support and we will also uh continue to engage and work with organizations like the New Jersey Coalition of inclusive education uh to be to continue moving in in the direction of how can we be more inclusive uh so that all students are able to participate in the least restrictive environment uh social emotional learning support will continue to be provided oural uh uh program um uh or our character Ed program character strong is is uh will continue to be used here um we'll continue to provide Counseling Services um in addition to making sure that we have um certified uh behavioral analysis support and so student students who need additional resources and support in terms of behavior management that will also be provided in addition to counseling services both um at the um middle and high school level as well as our Wellness Center which is now fully functional um in providing services to students grade 6 through 12 um health and safety Services uh K through 12 we have nursing support certified athletic trainers um and uh Consulting Physicians of record uh for both um all of our uh school-based um um Health uh offices as well as our athletic department in addition to uh safe routes to school uh and so we're currently working with um one of the local uh transportation management associations for Canden County looking at safe routes to schools for students K through 12 we know that we have students that have um distance within their commute and so we're looking at what are more meaningful ways to ensure that all students have a safe route to school and so that work started uh two months ago um and then throughout the summer we'll continue to work with them um until we are confident that um uh all students are protected and so in terms of Technology uh support uh I referenced earlier um the department reorganization with an emphasis on Improvement of customer service and technical assistance response time for for schools uh we'll continue to use our Google workspace for education and so this uh classroom environment allows students to access all of their materials anywhere anytime on any device uh we'll continue to operate using our onetoone Chromebook initiatives on campus to ensure uh that all students are able to engage with the latest digital tools um and then we will continue to update our Network infrastructure uh with an emphasis on cyber security and student and staff data protection and so uh we are moving into year three of our uh learning schedule here in Oakland and so um minor tweaks or refinements but the mechanics of the learning schedule here is really solid um and is there's no need to to make uh dramatic shifts home rooms will be maintained um at current levels specials will be maintained small group instruction will be modified based on student need and then tier two and tier three the uh most intensive interventions uh will be modified also based on student need um in addition to continuing to refine our character stronger SEO program uh as well as clubs and extracurricular activities and programs uh some funded through the district others funded through our Community Partners and so just wanted to make sure that we were providing additional information and so at our Middle School um alongside so patterning after um the Oakland uh learning schedule we believe that it was important that all Educators uh K through 12 had access to uh daily protected teacher time and so we use a very similar model that we uh have benefited from here in Oakland and we are now shifting that to the middle school and the high school and so daily um Ed all educators will have 30 minutes in the morning of protected common planning time to be able to do their work to work with their colleagues to look at data and plan in addition to their prep time and so some of the pathways that are offered at our Middle School um in the Performing Arts Arena we have the uh band Orchestra and chorus uh in fine artarts we have uh multiple years of Art and then in stem we have technology design and I cubed which is a project-based uh learning uh PL uh uh course of study at the high school level very similar there's a whole host of advanced placement courses as well as dual credit college credit bearing courses that will also be offered in addition to the 30 minutes per day of protected teacher time which ultimately will eliminate the uh need for early release for professional learning communities and So based on feedback from our community uh we felt that that was the best course of action and so the um Pathways or four-year um elective options at the high school and Performing Arts is band Orchestra and chorus Fine Arts is is the art trajectory under digital media graphic design television production and audio production um engineering and computer science and so this is in addition to any uh oneoff or any uh Singleton electives that may uh be offered from year-to year based on student choice and so in addition um we're we will be maintaining all of our athletic programs uh with one exception uh we'll be adding an additional program um uh in the spring and that is girls flag football uh and so this year girls flag football was a club um because it was going through the review process with the State athletic association and so uh next year uh it will have U enough participation to actually shift into a sport and so we'll be expanding uh with girls flag football uh and so fall winter and spring in addition to a whole host of uh extracurricular activities and clubs uh those will also be offered based on student Choice student interest and and and sign up and so um we also wanted to uh to kind of give a preview and so we just wanted to thank all of our community members including uh our to board members here uh who have continued to Advocate um on behalf of the district and districts like hours I know that Oakland is one of the districts that is participating in a growing Camden County uh uh uh group that is seeking to uh be a bit more uh aggressive and Direct in our state level advocacy for fair funding formulas and so uh we will be releasing uh additional information and advocacy um uh support literature to our community next week um that speaks to this as well and so we have been asking for our community since March uh to partner with us uh and we will have a a new requests with more uh specificity beginning next week in terms of how do we uh push the state to do a better job of ensuring that students in Conwood in Oakland have a an equitable educational system and that concludes the presentation thank you before we move before we move on do any board members have any questions about anything for Dr McDow on the presentation I have a couple that's okay um first thank you for that because it's really helpful to get a a better sense of you know what's happening here obviously but then when we send our kids to the middle and high school um a couple of questions regarding curriculum um I think it's been years but I'm just curious about when you were talking about languages um Latin has not been offered for some time correct on the secondary campus a year it's been it's been a year it's been a year and there's no plans to bring it back no um there's not that's unfortunate that's I mean personally the best language class that I took and still use it every single day um I had a question about um some of the you know electives when in regards to the pathways I didn't see things like creative writing journalism are those the individual electives that you mentioned based on student Choice yeah those are so those are one-offs and so traditionally the way that those have been offered is is that English teachers um didn't teach a section of English and they taught an elective and so right now we know that the school is um they're working to to build their master schedule and so if they are able to add those types of courses into their schedule they will um and so but it it it really is um it's it's too it's too soon to tell and so initially during the uh course selection process uh students requested courses and so I know that the counseling department they facilitated that process and then U they are making uh decisions based on the number of course requests for each of those classes and so I know specifically creative writing there were three English electives that were um under subscribed and so I know that there was a discussion among the administrative team at the high school about uh what should be offered uh and what should be Consolidated but there're they're they're still working through those details okay um I'm curious about the elevating student voice project with sounds really great how are the students chosen for that do they volunteer themselves you know I'm just curious to see because it's an opportunity for Oakland representation obviously so so initially um it was rolled out by um the by principal Newman um in their grade level uh meetings uh and it started with uh two things one students requesting to be considered uh and then uh teachers recommending students and so uh I believe they've identified um a dozen uh students uh diverse in nature in terms of uh what was what was requested was that the students the cohort of students represented the full body of the of the campus uh um across all areas and and so um they were just approved last night um by the colinwood Board of Education um I'll have to go back and check if there are um if Oakland students are signed up to participate be curious to know yeah and then the last thing I'll say sorry to be dominating all these questions but um there was a lot in that presentation um when it comes to the Middle School transition because it's really helpful for our board to know what you know where our kids are going and things like that I'm going to just publicly um say an advocate for inclusion of Oakland students in all kinds of activities there was a day when Collingswood students were invited to the middle school to see the electives and get excited about things and while there were Educators from the Middle School who came to Oakland later the Oakland students weren't included in that um initial part so I would advocate for their inclusion in the future that's all thank I have a quick question about off of something thees said um with the creative writing and the journalism and things is there a chance that those classes are coming back then because they were cut no no classes were cut and and so I I think that the the what so my understanding of the the master scheduled development is that there are class classes that were um requested M and then there were classes that they didn't know whether or not they were going to be able to offer based on what has been requested versus what's required cuz that's what they told the kids just so you know that's what they told the kids and they had the kids redo their schedules with other electives so kids who did sign up for that for some of those classes were then told they couldn't take them and had to pick new classes who's that um students midle Middle School the high school people in the high school I don't know who but I know SCH I don't I can't say who but I know for a fact that that occurred because I know kids that had to redo their schedules because they had picked creative writing and then they were told that it was not going to be offered so if they're re-evaluating based on interest those kids are no longer showing up as interest because now they're schedule requests show different classes and so I'm not I'm not able to speak to that yeah no I just want you I can I can follow up with the just know and maybe those kids are fine with what their new pick stuff their new stuff is but if that's how they're evaluating whether to offer it that's I would have concerns just because somebody's not doing something so I know that what ends up happening is is that so the master schedule process it's a pretty C cumbersome one and so um our lead counselor will be working throughout the summer and so as she moves through that particular process um should be able to let us know where there's areas of flexibility and if there's areas of flexibility it'd be my expectation that they have a plan to go back and talk to students that may have been affected by previous decisions I would just suggest maybe reminding them of that because I'm not sure that they will think of it I understand this making a schedule is extremely difficult process and everything and I do understand that if they didn't have enough interest in something saying okay we had 10 kids should sign up it's not enough for a class we're not going to have this but if they're considering revisiting that but those kids have already changed I just think that like some somebody just needs to make sure like because I don't know if they even have records of who picked it from before I don't know I just know that I do know for a fact that there were kids who were spoken to about changing because those classes were not offered and I had heard that people were disappointed in things like creative writing and journalism not being there and stuff and I agree with that that's classes can I ask you a question like this is probably more of a parent question than anything but so like in the middle school they to pick some options but there's never a guarantee that they get what they pick corre um and my daughter I think picked six and got something that was not one of the six um they don't know what they're getting until August but they did revisit like I know what was picked for some kids as requests and I know that they were then had to go back in and pick new classes and so their requests show different classes now than they did nobody knows what they're getting into la August and that makes sense to me I it's always been that way that's the pie that I wanted to clarify that they're just selecting what their interests are but they don't know right right but if you're basing it on interest right and then they're told okay we're not having this class so we have to pick something else now that pool of kids that was interested is not going to show his interest which makes it look like the class isn't even wanted sorry Colleen is that was that because of Staffing reductions not that I I don't know the reasons I just know that that happened and I heard it from a couple kids and that's the only reason I know okay thank you um does anyone else have any questions about the presentation I just have one questions about the high school the the uh it looked like there was not an engineering elective for seniors is there is there something that falls under that um it stopped at Aerospace on the junior year in so our engineering program it's now it will be this year will be moving into year three um and so there are no seniors that have gone through the trajectory yet and so next year it'll be four four years yeah good question I didn't notice that um um just a quick question for uh Dr McDow have there been any reductions in um advanced placement courses do you know of recently like I know Latin went away and that's may have been one if there was a Latin AP but are there other ltin AP classes that have gone away not that I'm currently aware of um so advanced placement are often educator dependent and so um to my knowledge there have not been reductions in in advanced placement uh courses uh there may be reduction in uh dual credit courses if uh individuals are no longer with us got sogy back to piggy back on that question and maybe I'm dating myself when something was called AP back then that meant you took a test and you got credits we're using it as AP as like a step above honors if it's called AP but dual credit if it's the one where you take the test no so advanced advanced placement courses are through um college board and so there are approved uh syllabi um curriculum and curriculum tools the Dual credit classes are uh credit bearing with our Partnerships with colleges and universities for students who qualify and so we have Educators that have master's degrees in the content area and we have articulation agreements with multiple colleges that there are specific courses that if students take and pass that course if they pay for the uh requisite credit for that University they actually get college credit while they're in high school whereas with the AP class they by that when they get they take the AP exam and dependent on what they score on the AP exam most colleges accept it as a credit bearing option okay thank you all right um ala there's any other questions we can move on to section four which is committee of the whole is there a motion to go into Committee of the whole so moved second tie and tie all right we are now in Committee of the whole um there is one item on the agenda but I Know Rich had another item that he wanted to mention and then we can open it up and see if there are others um so the first item on the agenda is um we um the school received an email um from a former student um wondering if the school had plans um for a memorial for Ryan Rogers who is a former student of Oakland um who passed away sadly last year um I did not know him but I know family members knew him in fact they were um uh there was a benefit uh this weekend that they were at um so I sent you all the email yesterday I don't know hopefully I had a chance to look at it but if anyone has any thoughts or um if you want to talk about now we haven't had a chance to talk about it in committee yet so this is our first time talking about it but just wanted to see if anyone had any thoughts to share all right hearing none I was to say it's um I think it'd be best to to discuss it in committee um it was I was glad we got the email and um I think we can kind of brainstorm in the meantime uh and find a way to uh you know that would be fitting to to honor Ryan um so yeah I think for our next committee meetings that's come with some ideas I think that's probably a good idea I'd also love um any precedence from you know I I very limited memory I mean hopeful that we don't have too many of these things that we you know need to memorialize because it is very sad but yeah if there maybe Miss Balden could offer some um guidance in that way great so let's table this and we'll discuss that our August um committee meetings all right thank you um Rich I'm going to put you on the spot because I know you had reached out about um uh committee reports so you want to share your thoughts on that I just wanted uh just wanted to do a hard push for the committee uh notes uh something that I've kind of gotten used to uh sitting on the Collingswood board amongst other things uh but I I do enjoy it's it's it's really just a nice quick snapshot of what happens at the other committees I know sometimes they get sent out sometimes they don't people are busy um so if I could do a a push for that to try to get those out from all the Committees a little more regularly I I find it helpful and to committee chairs like one of the things I did when I was chairing uh Finance was I kind of put together a template in word where I could just plug in some updates as we were going through the committee meeting so you know if that's something we want to explore together more than happy to help folks we can put together kind of a template uh that way you're not having to kind of recreate the wheel when you get home uh I I you know dur during committee time I would I took the notes I'm I'm decent typers so I would just do it while I was there and uh so I didn't have to do it at home but the template makes that possible so just wanted to do a push for that I'd love to see that template can you share that with us that' be great I'd love to use that tool yeah but we would need to tweak it for each committee right because the one I did for finance had you know just the regular business all Beth an stuff and then things that we would include but we could definitely tweak that for uh you know each committee anytime yeah I just Chim in that it would be helpful too when sending those reports to if there are items not part of that particular committee's agenda but they're discussed in that meeting to include that as well um I have the uh honor of sitting in all three committees um but sometimes my memory is clouded in terms of where that discussion happens um so it be helpful to have like a recap in um oh yes curriculum did discuss this and it was on the finance committee but they discussed it as well so that's sort of thing thank you for reminding me all right is there anything else for committee of the whole I hate to say this but I have one one item uh speaking of uh safe routes to school and a lot of you know what's coming now because I've been bitching about this for 10 months and nothing has happened unless it happened after 4:00 this afternoon but on the White Horse Pike at Newton Avenue uh there's a crosswalk and there are signs on each side of the street reflecting the fact that there's a crosswalk there and the Oakland kids are supposed to use that crosswalk uh last September I told everybody I could think of and the it's got to be a colinwood public works problem but I asked that the tree limb that's blocking completely the one sign that you can see as you come down the street uh I asked that that be trimmed back so that you could actually see the sign uh here we are one full school school year later uh 10 months and nothing has happened uh last year I I advised the uh collinswood uh police chief who at that point was also the superintendent of Public Works and he was going to have that taken care of and I'm sure if I live long enough that I'll see that tree trimmed but if anybody knows anybody that could see that that happens maybe we could have a traffic accident there and I'll run into the tree and knock it over so be a little bit easier but that's my uh my complaint for the safe routes to school thank you for the reminder I noticed that as well um also wish that just in general it was a safer crosswalk but I dig grass on that too anyone else for committee of the whole all right is there a motion to come out of Committee of the hole second moved and seconded all right moving along to section five um future dates and miscellaneous information uh not much there because it's summertime um so the summer stream and esy Program start on July 8th and end on August 1st and our next board meeting is on a August 20th section six this is our first public comment section um if you have something to bring to the board um that is listed on the agenda uh you can come up now please stand state your name and address and keep your comments to five minutes or less any public comments at this time all right hearing none back there moving on to section seven sorry computer freezing um routine board business uh the first one is um motion to approve the minutes from our May 21st board meeting um section 7.02 is um as required the school district contracts report um from bethanne and so these are attached here and so is there a motion to approve um items 7.01 and 7.02 so move second moved in second and are there any questions from board members on either of those items this might be a dumb question but I thought Garrison AR Architects was something taken out of the budget is this just that they're an approved vendor for like as needed okay thank you all right thanks uh on a roll call Perfect all in favor I I all opposed all right uh section eight this is the superintendent report Dr McDow okay uh section 8.01 is the enrollment report uh May of 2023 is 276 May of 2024 is 269 uh 8.02 and 03 are the safety drill and suspension reports uh they they are also attached um in addition just a few um uh celebratory uh things that um were not covered in the uh the presentation and so um we have uh students that uh participated as senior leaders this year and so we just wanted to uh celebrate and acknowledge the senior leadership uhmy uh of 2024 uh so the cohort this year was dedicated to making positive changes in the in the school community and so these student leaders which comprise of uh Collinwood Oakland and Woodland uh seniors uh they accumulated over 500 service hours uh which also included 65 Elementary classroom lessons 14 trips uh successful Pam mediations and they raised over $55,000 to support their passion projects and so we just wanted to acknowledge um their efforts uh we're appreciative for their leadership and their impact to the school Community will never be forgotten and we just like to publicly acknowledge Mr lore and Mr Adams for serving as their advisers uh we will be um uh publishing all of their names um in a um Community update uh later this week um we'd also um just like to thank our community for allowing us to serve uh students this year and so as we reach um the TW the end of the 23 24 school year um I just had the great honor of of attending all of the closing ceremonies um and each ceremony was unique um the My highlight of every year um is the Oscars here in Oakland um and trying to to to see in the faces of the students if they can guess what the teachers see in them before they actually announce their name and so that's um that's always enjoyable and so uh during graduation on the 17th um we were honored to celebrate 185 graduates in the High School class of 2024 and so um just a few accolades for this uh this group of young people they were awarded over 5,1 128,129 [Music] Foundation scholarship recipients uh and so um we wanted to recognize outstanding performance of the uh class of 2024 valedictorian Micah anger who will be attending Dartmouth in the fall and salutatorian Wesley Wilcox who will be attending the University of Vermont in addition to honoring and recognizing the 35 National Honor Society graduates and their classmates who got into some of the most prestigious colleges in the the country including uh universities like Boston University Brown Carnegie melon Clemson Dartmouth Drexel Georgetown Georgia Tech Indiana James Madison LSU Ohio State Penn State um Pepperdine Syracuse Temple MIT UMass USC and Wesleyan just to name a few um and so extremely proud of what they were able to accomplish and so in addition to them showing their resilience and perseverance um we believe that they're they're well prepared uh and will continue with that success and so in addition to their academics they also represented the Arts in very exceptional ways and so the uh Panther marching band was a top 10 finalist in the Atlantic coast championships and the indoor percussion Ensemble placed third in the same championships PA TV senior uh ailia TR received a 2024 Emmy for Outstanding talent and news anchor uh senior Enzo damasi received a 2022 Emy for prod uh producing a holiday show and then pause uh TV seniors received Emmy nominations for producing good morning Collingswood news as well as Panther ignite and Panther football culture in addition to a documentary about Odyssey of the mind and so in addition uh we had one of our students who won first place in the Camden County teen Arts Festival as well as having our students uh films be honored in the New Jersey 10-day Film Festival our student athletes uh were also uh uh recognized for their uh outstanding achievement the boys baseball uh Team were Conference champions girls lacrosse were Conference champions girls soccer won the Jim Black sportsmanship award boys basketball team leader Tomas money scored uh 1,49 points over his four-year career broke the school record for most points in a game uh track and cross country team leader Elijah Forest won the group two state championship for the two mile event football team leader Shakur Carter broke multiple records with a season uh high of nine interceptions 57 uh receptions uh with a career record of 115 receptions 1,800 uh yards and 21 touchdown receptions in addition to our student athletes being recognized as Allstars in the colonial conference the South Jersey uh conference the South Jersey Interstate swim league the South Jersey Interstate lacrosse league and the Burlington County sports leagues and so uh we just wanted to uh just to acknowledge uh the tremendous efforts of our students and so um uh over the summer all schools will reflect on their successes and identify areas in need of improvement uh and then we'll continue with the the long-standing tradition of site based leadership and so so uh we just look forward to learning and leading together uh and focusing on our efforts on rigorous learning environments with a continued emphasis on community uh and culture uh and that concludes my report thank you for that um I just want to add two uh kudos to the Middle School choir led by uh Mr Hartong who brought home um giant trophies from uh competition at Six Flags um I was uh privileged to shop around that trip um and yeah they're outstanding so thanks to that all right uh section nine uh this is the business administrator report all righty so this evening I have um your monthly made transfers in item 9.01 9.02 is your uh financial statements your board secretary's report cash reports 9.03 is a listing of the purchase orders for the month of June um and 9 04 the listing of the bills to be paid tomorrow morning pending approval tonight um and I know it's summer but this is when I get really busy um so um we're scheduled um your books will be audited um end of July beginning of August so hopefully when we meet in August 20th I'll have like a financial update for finance committee that's it thank you uh section 10 the finance committee report Jimmy this is a very large dooy all 19 points um I'm a little behind on this month is there any could I get an assistance on that bethanne I will do for I apologize thank you that's okay I owe you no worries all right let me page down I just print my agenda early sorry I sure okay so item 10.01 through 10.06 are those items that I just mentioned your monthly approvals 10.07 is the um revised resolution um for your school budget as required by the department of Ed they restored um 2 74,8 69 to Oakland but with it came some strings always um so I had to we had to uh resubmit the budget but they needed a detail board resolution as to which line items in your budget I was placing the funds for tracking purposes so that is that item uh 10.08 is our annual approval um that allows me should funds be available um that we can um deposit into your approved Reserve accounts funds so Oakland currently has on the books you have uh maintenance Reserve capital reserve and tuition Reserve I usually um this is the only time of year that you can do it you can only do it in the month of June so what I do is I do up to a dollar amount and then when um the auditor here you know um we kind of make the decision uh 10.09 is your listing of your ad of District special ed placements as of this month it's always a moving Target 10.10 is um approving just addendum to extend your agreement with um excuse me ESS for um your AIDS um and I did reach out to them about substitute teachers or supposed to having a meeting with them this Summer um 10.11 is approving educational consultancy um to provide ldt services um on an as needed basis um over the summer um cuz child team is their 10mth so even they're approved to work over the summer we you know in case something comes up we can get the IEPs written um 10.12 um is approving um the uh list of services and fees from glester County Special Services for any of our children that go there um 10.13 is the uh shared administrative Services agreement with the Collingswood uh Board of V 10.14 is the uh interlocal uh shared agreement with Oakland burough um because they take care of your grounds out front uh 10.15 is accepting the esca grant allocations for 2425 10.16 oh my computer froze come on as um approving this is a year three of a 5year lease for your postas machine 10.17 as approving realtime Information Technology um that is a software we use to write um student IPS um and 10.18 is approving um OC Panthers basketball um from August through November 1st and then item 19 is very important but it's basically my summer resolution so this just allows me from now until we meet again in August to pay bills and do what I need to do and then bring everything to you in August to ratify but just you know to close the books and pay the bills and keep everything moving because we don't meet in July and that is it so um items 10.01 through 10.19 thank you there a motion to approve those items so moved second moved in second uh any questions from board members about any of those uh just one comment I did share this in committee uh since I'm an employee of the Collingswood School District uh and some of those administrators are my bosses uh just to not show any conflict of interest I'll be abstaining from uh item 10.13 thank you all right on a roll call Mrs Ezekiel yes Mrs Fel yes Mr STS yes Mrs Rando yes Mr tab yes Mrs marmian yes Mr Schaefer with the exception of 10.13 yes Mrs bushko yes all right moving on to section 11 uh the curriculum and Personnel committee report uh this is Todd all righty good good evening everyone so item 11.01 uh we're looking to approve a paid uh maternity leave which will begin October uh of 2024 through November uh followed by an unpaid uh leave of no more than 12 weeks from November through February uh the anticipated return for that employee is March of 2024 um item 11.02 we're looking for approval uh for additional hours for uh staff for after school clubs uh at the rate of $50.49 to be paid from Esser funds item 11.03 we are seeking uh to approve the following staff for AE AED training uh at a rate of $39.75 we are seeking tuition reimbursement uh for Kate Morocco at$ 25572 uh item 11.05 we were seeking approval uh for the following substitutes and tutors for the 2425 school year item 11.06 we are looking for um well not exactly a travel expense but it was related to professional development it was a virtual um uh professional development that they had uh it was paid out of a title 2 Grant um and it covered all the resources that those staff members will be receiving from attending that professional development and item 11.07 just seeking approval to allow Dr mcdal to make uh hires in the summer months so we are seeking approval on items 11.01 through 11.07 thank you so motion to approve those items so moved second moved and seconded any questions from board members just one it might be down what an 11.03 what does AED stand for that's what I thought okay I I just was curious thank you thank you later remember the name of I uh on a roll call please Mrs Ezekiel yes Mrs Fel I got you Mr stz yes Mrs Rando yes Mr tab yes Mrs Maran yes Mr Schaefer yes Mrs bushka yes uh section 12 this is the community relations and policy committee teres hi um item 12.01 is the colins report from Mr tab good evening um I just sent everything out this morning so if uh you haven't gotten to your inbox yet you'll see um the uh full agenda from cols with meeting um along with uh these updates um one thing I didn't include in my updates that I wanted to make a note of that Dr McDow mentioned was uh the Partnerships so you'll see all the approvals for the actual universities that that were partnered with and there uh which is it's just interesting to see how many there are um uh we had our uh executive session for the CSA evaluation to review those documents uh much like we had tonight we uh recognized our graduating senior leaders um and some of their accomplishments over the course of the year um building grounds and finance committee um much like we did tonight uh reapproved uh budget with the uh reflected uh recovery of some State funding um with the same Hoops we had um we approval for the advanced placement in African-American studies grant that is funding uh this great course that is already full um approval for the Perkins secondary consolidation Grant um which is uh standard uh standard Grant um and approval for the uh teacher climate culture and Innovation grant that we talked about earlier um committee uh we had our high school cheerleaders will be attending uh Cheer Camp over the course of the summer um and uh also uh book your days on the calendar for December 12th 13th and 14th uh the CMS uh fall musical will be Freaky Friday one act Edition so get ready for that um Personnel updates uh we welcome the new middle school Spanish teacher William Snider um we'll also be rolling out universal mental health screener um and I linked some additional information on that from the Department of Ed um select staff and students will also be participating in the elevating student voice training um that we discussed earlier um and uh callings would will be partnering we'll be partnering together for the summer curriculum mapping and auditing so that was approved as well that's it for Collingswood Thank you Rich um item 12.02 is the PTA on report and Mr Ronda wasn't able to attend uh the last meeting so I'll report um the Oakland PTA met for their final meeting of the school year on Wednesday June 5th um in addition to the normal business they talked about some amazing the months of May and June were full of events from Muffins with Mom the townwide yard sale on June 1st all of the fifth grade um promotion activities which as a parent of a fifth grader was incredible and Kudos again to the planning committee that did an an amazing job um donuts with Dad which was on June 7th and then a different um iteration of the Spring Fling which was koi success and uh really played on being a give back to the community um a way to engage families and seeing seems to um be a nice model to go forward um there was um recognition of the teacher of the year and the instructional assistant of the year um and then the um institution of new board members as well so um Matt spade and Lisa angeletta sorry that it's not written on here I hope I'm saying everybody's names correctly in public apologies if I'm not um joining the PTA board so very excited about um moving forward their next meeting won't be until the school year starts in September um item 12.03 is the omac report from Miss bko I'm afraid I do not have a report at this time I did not hear back from Mr shark next month AUST all good well um I'm happy to report item 12.04 the Oakland Education Foundation did meet on on June 11th I believe and uh covered a lot of ground um in addition to scholarships the usual o scholarships that are being awarded um there's also a teacher grant for the preschool that o is going to be supporting um then there was a lot of talk about fundraisers um and things that we can do especially in light of the you know recent State funding shortfalls um so there's talk about U maybe a late fall early winter um event around Eagles football that could be a great fundraiser um reinvigorating a letter campaign to local businesses to help support the Oakland Education Foundation which as a reminder is a 501c3 organization that can support anything needed at the school um and there was also talk about the leadership meeting with Miss Balin to talk about a wish list for next year um especially since so many pieces of the budget had to be cut uh so they're really looking forward to and just publicly anyone who is interested and getting involved in O it is uh not a huge commitment but has great impact so um I do encourage anyone please feel free to reach out to me uh directly and I can cont connect you with the leadership um and that's it and then item 12.05 um we have policies of for second reading that um we reviewed at the last meeting in May um Equitable Educational Opportunity Revis secret societies revised equal access of student organizations revised vandalism and notification of juvenile offender case disposition um so we are seeking approval tonight for items 12.01 through 12.05 is there motion to approve so move second are there any questions from board members now can I make a request not not a question but for Rich i i attended part of the Colin board meeting last night in the cafet ceria and the Acoustics in the cafeteria are horrible uh the you know I'm the wrong person to to complain about sound but uh uh you couldn't hear hear the board at all I mean you could see lips moving but you couldn't couldn't hear anything the speakers on there they had the the mic in their hand I guess maybe that was it but if collinswood continues to have uh voluminous meetings if they could plan on having them maybe somewhere else that would be more accessible maybe the C not the C maybe the uh Auditorium uh just it's a thought thank you all right uh on a roll call please Mrs Ezekiel yes Mrs Fel yes Mr stz yes Mrs Rando yes Mr Tavy yes Mrs Maran yes Mr McMillan yes Mr schaer yes Mrs bushko yes all right section 13 uh 13.01 is um last month's uh HIV report and um this is the only item in this section so is there a motion to approve this item so moved second moved and seconded any questions from board members all right uh on a roll call please Mrs Ezekiel yes Mrs Vel yes Mr STS yes Mrs Rando yes Mr McMillan yes Mr taby yes Mrs marmian yes Mr Schaefer yes Mrs bushka yes section 14 this is our second public comment section um please stand state your name and address and keep your comments to five minutes or less uh this is for any item you wish bring before the board and hearing none um I'm just going to mention something that I forgot to mention during committee as a whole um but yes yesterday uh Dr mcdal had mentioned this during his presentation but yesterday um the uh president from the Hoten Township Board of Education convened a meeting um with uh leaders from around the area so I would say this primarily had in Township in Collingswood um but bethanne and theres uh did join as well I was on there um so we are looking at ways um looking at legislation for um pushing for improvements to the state funding formula so there will be a lot more to come on that um and working on getting the word out um pushing through like an email letter campaign or social media um so stay tuned for that but if anyone is interested in learning more and or joining future meetings last night was the first one um let me know and I'll be happy to forward the information to you and if I can just piggyback on that um Dr mcdal I know you said that there's communication forthcoming to community members and just as the chair of the school policy and community relations uh committee I'd love if we could coordinate our efforts because yes I am participating in this other group you know it would just be great to to just know rightand knowing what the left hand's doing um in best practices but this is I'm very grateful that Denise put this out to our board members and I I'd encourage anyone else to to get involved there's already a doodle Poll for the next meeting which will be in July um and they are meeting with our now I'm for lampit is that yes assembly woman um just to talk about you know recommendations as well for what to do so yeah I mean any way also that our committee can maybe talk next month or a in August about ways to help support what Dr mcdal is going to be communicating and then this advocacy group I'm all for it here here yes all right um so section 15 is there a motion to adjourn second m in second and all in favor I I all right we are turn good night everyone enjoy your summer